Top Trades: June 16 - June 23

Zhao, the Moon Slayer | Illustrated by Toraji

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to Top Trades, the weekly series where we check in with the most popular cards from the week prior here at Cardsphere. So, what cards have been making moves this time around? Let’s take a look.

Honorable Mention - Flow State

Number of Trades: 4 --- Number of Cards Traded: 4

Leading things off this week as our honorable mention is Flow State, a blue value spell that, along with Stock Up, just will not stop being traded.

For , Flow State is a sorcery that lets you look at the top three cards of your library, put one of them into your hand, and the rest into your graveyard. If you’ve got both an instant card and a sorcery card in your graveyard, however, you put two of those cards into your hand instead.

That’s a pretty efficient package for decks already interested in chaining spells together. At baseline, you’re getting card selection a la Impulse, which is a totally playable cantrip. Once the upgraded mode is online, though, this is card selection and advantage, a one-two punch that can break just about any blue spell. Spellslinger decks, control decks, and just about anyone running a cantrip in the first place is now considering Flow State.

#5 - Skateboard

Number of Trades: 4 --- Number of Cards Traded: 4

Starting off our main list is Skateboard, a handy Equipment with just enough immediate upside to make it an interesting pick for Cube enthusiasts and low-bracket Commander players alike.

An Equipment that costs , Skateboard brings with it two abilities. When it enters, you tap target permanent. Additionally, it has an equip cost of , granting equipped +1/+0 and haste.

All in all, this is a really flexible card that does something not all Equipment can claim: it's immediately valuable. At a bare minimum, this is a sorcery-speed piece of interaction to tap something down, which isn't exactly strong but it is certainly usable. Plus, if you do have a creature and the mana to equip that turn, then the haste will guarantee you can make use of the +1/+0 bonus; not bad for a total of .

#4 - Zhao, the Moon Slayer

Number of Trades: 4 --- Number of Cards Traded: 4

Next up is Zhao, the Moon Slayer, a solid stax creature that does a great Blood Moon impression.

For , Zhao is a 2/2 legendary Human Soldier with menace. Nonbasic lands enter tapped, and for , you can put a conqueror counter on Zhao. As long as Zhao has that counter, nonbasic lands are Mountains.

There’s a lot going on there for two mana. The starting rate already punishes greedy mana bases by slowing nonbasics down, which is plenty annoying on its own. The activated ability is expensive, sure, but in longer Commander games it gives Zhao real closing power by turning fancy mana bases into a pile of, well, Mountains, an effect so strong that players have been running it since The Dark.

#3 - Twilight Diviner

Number of Trades: 4 --- Number of Cards Traded: 5

Coming in at number three is Twilight Diviner, a graveyard value creature with a pretty serious ceiling.

For , Twilight Diviner is a 3/3 Elf Cleric. When it enters, you surveil 2. Additionally, whenever one or more other creatures you control enter, if they entered or were cast from a graveyard, you create a token that’s a copy of one of them. That ability triggers only once each turn.

That’s the sort of text box graveyard players love to see. The surveil helps set things up immediately, and once you start reanimating creatures or recurring them from the yard, Twilight Diviner ratchets up the value in pretty obscene ways; I mean, bringing back one Eldrazi is already a threat...but two?

#2 - Sundown Pass

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 5

Just missing the top spot this week is Sundown Pass, a longtime staple of many a low-bracket Boros deck.

A nonbasic land, Sundown Pass enters tapped unless you control two or more other lands and has ": Add or ." Simple and effective, this is just a solid mana-fixing piece that comes in untapped often enough to matter across deck lists. Commander players are always tuning mana bases, and lands that quietly do their job tend to move steadily in trades, especially when they slot into a huge number of decks without much fuss.

#1 - Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 19

Last but not least, our most traded card of the week: Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar.

For , Kediss is a 1/1 legendary Elemental Lizard with partner and "Whenever a commander you control deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to each other opponent."

Partner is always a dangerous keyword, breaking open a deck's color identity even further while also adding the innate value that comes with a second card in the command zone, but Kediss's second ability really turns that up a notch. In Commander, turning one successful hit into table-wide damage adds up fast, especially when paired with commanders that hit hard, carry Equipment well, or naturally want to connect in combat anyway. Kediss has been a known quantity for a while now, but cards like this never really stay out of circulation for long; they’re cheap to build around, strong at both casual and competitive tables, and capable of some pretty explosive turns once the right partner shows up.

Wrap Up

That does it for this week’s Top Trades. Between a couple of efficient value pieces, a reliable dual land, some graveyard utility, and one very effective little Lizard, this week’s list covered a pretty wide spread of what players are after right now. Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back next week to see what cards are making moves next.